police

UK:*UK and possibly other pronunciationsUK and possibly other pronunciations/pəˈliːs/US:USA pronunciation: IPA and respellingUSA pronunciation: IPA/pəˈlis/ ,USA pronunciation: respelling(pə lēs′)

Inflections of 'police' (v): (⇒ conjugate)
polices
v 3rd person singular
policing
v pres p
policed
v past
policed
v past p

Collocations for "police"


Common phrases and expressions where native English speakers use the word "police" in context.

WordReference English Collocations © 2025

police

ⓘMost examples are given in US English. We have labeled exceptions as UK.
n
  1. (the) [local, state, mountain, city, metropolitan] police
  2. [phone, call, tell, inform, contact, warn] the police
  3. [phone] the police about a crime
  4. police were [controlling, stopping, monitoring, directing] the traffic
  5. the police are looking for [clues, evidence, drugs, terrorists, smugglers]
  6. the police are [checking, analyzing, examining] evidence
  7. the police are patrolling the [streets, neighborhood, town]
  8. the police were called to the [home, scene, building]
  9. the police [searched, examined, entered, raided] the building
  10. (the) police have appealed for [help, information, calm]
  11. (the) police [held back, fought, faced] the [rioters, crowd, protesters]
  12. the police surrounded the [gang, suspect, building]
  13. the police [arrived, rushed] to the scene
  14. the [crook, criminal, robber] was caught by (the) police
  15. caught, apprehended, arrested, shot] by the police
  16. the police and [fire brigade, firefighters, ambulances]
n as adj
  1. a police [officer, informer, informant, worker]
  2. the police [station, uniform, investigation, force]
  3. [in, dressed in, wearing] police uniform
  4. on police [duty, business]
  5. a heavy police presence [in, at, around]
v
  1. [squad cars, officers, tanks, the army] policed the [area, entrance]
  2. police the [area, town, streets, festival]
  3. was [under, over] -policed
  4. was [properly, effectively, strictly, poorly, heavily, minimally] policed
  5. policed to [ensure, prevent, protect]
  6. police and [enforce, regulate, monitor]
  7. policed by [squad cars]
  8. policed themselves
  9. (stop) policing my [body, tone]
'police' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
ID - a nose for sth - accountability - act - alert - area - arrest - assist - auction - avoid - badge - ban - block - bogus - bomb - brawling - brush - bust - call - canister - captive - capture - caution - charge - chase - chief - chopper - city - clash - clock - close - collar - comb - commissioner - communication - competence - compliment - conceal - conduct - conjunction - constrained - contingent - conundrum - cooperation - corner - county - crank - crook - crowd - cry

Forum discussions with the word(s) "police" in the title:

  • Go to Preferences page and choose from different actions for taps or mouse clicks.

In other languages: Spanish | French | Italian | Portuguese | Romanian | German | Dutch | Swedish | Russian | Polish | Czech | Greek | Turkish | Chinese | Japanese | Korean | Arabic

Advertisements
Advertisements
Report an inappropriate ad.
WordReference.com
WORD OF THE DAY
GET THE DAILY EMAIL!

Become a WordReference Supporter to view the site ad-free.